Finishing Off Our Quick Trip to Switzerland

We spent our last day and a half in Switzerland seeing some sights around Lucerne and then driving to France.  Tuesday was a raining and gray day pretty much all day.  Despite that, we decided to the popular excursion to the top of Mount Pilatus.  The famous cog railway is still closed for the winter but the cable cars were running.  It takes two cable cars - first a small one (four person) than a large gondola - to get to the top.  The trip was fine - just us and one other couple in the gondola.  We had some nice views on the way up.

Cow graze near the gondola to Mount Pilatus in Lucerne

On the small four person gondola we passed over a number of farms including this one with a peacock (!) on the roof

Views of the Lucerne area from the small gondola

More views - this time of the lush forest with massive pine trees

The mountain looms at the station to transfer to the big gondola

These were the best views we could get on this cloudy, rainy day.  This was taken from the big gondola.

However, up top, it was completely cloud covered.  Nothing could be seen further than a few feet.  We looked around (it was very cold outside) and had a nice lunch at the restaurant where, surprisingly, the prices were not any higher than we found in Lucerne.  We then headed down and met an elderly but feisty Australian from Perth, Rodney.  He was traveling alone, several days into a three month extensive trip.  When reached below, the weather was worse and it was raining so we offered him a lift into Lucerne.  On the way we noticed a brewery, Eichhof, and stopped to buy a few items for Alexander, who is into all things having to do with beer brewing.  

There are two hotels on top of Mount Pilatus.  This is the newer one and the one at which you first arrive.

We took a short "Dragon's Walk" which was mostly outside and very cold.  No views since it was too cloudy but Randy found some snow.

We were surprised to see a flock of friendly ravens on the top of the mountain

On the mountain things were growing - lichen and moss in well harmonizing colors

The hotel had this aged gentleman play the traditional horn every so often for a few minutes

The dining room of the second, and much older, hotel atop Mount Pilatus

Alice enjoyed asparagus and wild garlic pasta with rose wine while Randy has sausage and cream soup

View on the way down on the gondola

While it was raining, the weather did create a rainbow over Lucerne - look closely and you will see it

Masses of Eichhof beer are ready for drinking

This funny ad was just outside of the brewery

In Lucerne we visited the Rosengart Art Museum, a private collection of mostly Picasso and Klee with a few other modern and Impressionist paintings thrown it.  It is housed in an elegant and large building in the historic area.  The collection is quite impressive and well worth seeing even if you are not a huge fan of these artists (we are not).  Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed so there is no visual record of this visit that I can share with you.  

The apartment we rented in Lucerne turned out well.  It is a large one with well equipped kitchen, a big room divided into a sleeping and living area, and a separate toilet room and a separate shower room.  We also had our own garden area (although the weather was not good enough for us to take advantage of that).  The family lived on the large house's upper two floors while we had most of the ground floor.  The area was a convenient suburb to Lucerne (Emmenbrucke) and our hostess, Brigit, was friendly and organized.  We enjoyed cooking dinner on Tuesday for a change from restaurants, and also making our own breakfast.  The kitchen even had an espresso maker.  For the price it was a good deal in Switzerland.

The house exterior in Emmenbrucke - our apartment door is directly in front on the ground floor

Randy heads through our garden to our car

Another view of the apartment area and the nice patio (which we could not use due to the weather)

The pond and garden area of the home

The bedroom area of the single large room

The living side of the big room

The kitchen is big and very well equipped.  We made dinner the last night we were there and even grilled asparagus in the oven successfully.

View from the living area window - note the yellow large church with its interesting steeple shape

While our Tuesday of sightseeing was done in not very good weather, our leaving day of Wednesday brought a sunny and relatively warm day.  Our scenic drive took us near Bern and down to Lake Geneva, where we briefly left the highway to have a picnic on a small road with spectacular overlooks of the lake near the large town of Vevey.  This French part of Switzerland is very pretty with green fields, cows grazing and snow capped mountains in the background.  Our route went through Lausanne and then Geneva (we saw neither city since we were on the highway.  Crossing into France was easy -  a brief slow down but no stop at the border.   On to our last country in Europe for this journey!

View of a small lake from a rest area south of Bern

We spent the rest of our Swiss Francs at this rest area which included an area of designer cow statues (well, the Swiss have their own sense of style)

Randy in the car at our picnic spot just north of Vevey

The view from our picnic spot - a great way to end our short but happy journey to Switzerland